Transcript

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>> I think that the intelligence community is gonna be absolutely critical.>> A former Deputy Director of the CIA, resigning in protest from a prestigious spot at Harvard University on Thursday, after the school offered Chelsea Manning a visiting fellowship. Manning, an Army intelligence analyst, who was convicted of sending hundreds of thousands of classified documents to Wikileaks, was pardoned by President Barack Obama in January.

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>> And the fundamental job of the intelligence community is to fully inform a presidential decision.>> Michael Morell served more than 30 years at the CIA, briefing President George W Bush following the September 11th 2001 attacks. He served as acting director following the abrupt resignation of David Petraeus due to a sex scandal.

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He left the agency in 2013, later becoming a senior fellow at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. In a letter to Harvard on Thursday, Morell said, I have an obligation to my conscience, and I believe to the country, to stand up against efforts to justify leaks of sensitive national security information.

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Morell added that he fully supported Manning's rights as a transgender individual and the rights of transgendered people to serve in the US Military. In addition to Chelsea Manning, others offered senior fellow positions at Harvard this year include former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, former Hillary Clinton Campaign Manager Robby Mook, and former Donald Trump Campaign Manager Corey Lewandowski.